by J. J. Green
Kamil.
Tears suddenly welling up from nowhere, she ran up to him and threw her arms around him.
“Hey, you probably don’t want to do that,” he said, halfheartedly. “I must stink.”
“I don’t care.”
She hugged him tighter. “I didn’t know if you’d made it. I thought you might have been killed when the Regians took the ship.”
“No, I missed out on that battle.”
“Thank the stars you did.”
Kamil pulled away from her to look her in the eyes.
“I was lucky in another way,” he said. “I hoped you were too precious to be killed, and I was right.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Mezban’s troops could have been a useful ally in their effort to defeat the Regians and escape aboard the Bathsheba, but Carina didn’t trust them. As soon as she could be heard above the noise of celebration, she’d ordered the Black Dogs to round up every man and woman they could find who wasn’t a member of their band, and lock them in the refectory.
Lomang, Mezban, and Pappu were found hiding in the closet of one of the largest suites. They joined their troops, after Carina had relieved Lomang of his translator and comm and given them to Parthenia.
No Regians had been found in the section of the ship where they’d confined the humans. No doubt they had lockable entrances to the area as well as the solid steel walls, but she wasn’t going to try to find them. The portals would be exactly the places the Regians would be expecting them to try to force entry.
She had a better idea.
“I don’t like this, Car,” said Atoi as they stood next to one of the metal seals the aliens had created. “It’d be better for us all to face them head on, full force. If you two go in, working alone…”
“Have you ever been in a firefight with Regians?” asked Carina.
“No, but—”
“This is the best way, believe me. And when we get the rifles to you, remind everyone what I said. Long bursts of fire.”
Bryce was also there.
Carina had been overjoyed to discover he was among the mercs in the refectory, but their time for catching up had been fleeting. She turned to take a look at him one last time, just in case she never saw him again.
“I know you know what you’re doing better than any of us,” he said, “but take care.”
“You too.”
“Ready?” asked Parthenia.
She nodded. “Let’s go.”
Together, they took a drink of elixir from their flasks.
Carina closed her eyes, Cast, and then opened them again.
Cold, humid air enveloped her. The armory Cadwallader had created, which lay on the Regian-occupied side of the Bathsheba, was in complete darkness.
“Phew!” Parthenia whispered. “No one’s around.”
It was as Carina had expected. The aliens hadn’t seen any reason to post guards inside the weapon store. Her demonstration in the gym didn’t seem to have given the creatures too much of an indication of what mages could do.
She Cast Fire onto one of the rolled-up napkins she’d brought along. It blazed up, and the flames’ light reflected from the muzzles of the pulse rifles surrounding them. One-handed, she grabbed one for herself and gave another to Parthenia.
“If we’re disturbed, remember to do what I said,” she told her. “I know you hate it. I do, too, but nothing else works as well.” Seeing a glint of defiance appear in Parthenia’s eyes, she added, “I’m not trying to boss you around. It’s the truth. Now, hurry. We don’t have long.”
They began to Transport the weapons to the mercs waiting on the other side of the ship. Carina sent one row, then Parthenia Transported the row beneath it.
A loud, ululating whine sounded. The fire alarm.
“Quick,” Carina urged, “it’ll take them a moment to find out the location of the fire.”
They managed to Transport two more rows of rifles before the door opened.
Instantly, Carina dropped the burning napkins and stamped out the flames.
“Now us,” she breathed to her sister, “but let me do it.”
A hulking figure blocked the dim light entering from the passage. Carina prepared to Cast and grabbed her sister’s hand. The Regian’s body swayed as it looked—or perhaps smelled—for them. Abruptly, it halted.
Then it sprang.
Before it reached them, they’d left the armory and appeared on one side of a metal seal—the Regian side. At the far end of the corridor stood the entrance to the viewing dome.
The lighting was dim as twilight under a cloudy sky. On the other side of the steel sheet, Atoi and the rest of the Black Dogs would be arming themselves with the newly arrived weapons, but Carina and her sister still had plenty to do.
Suddenly, Parthenia’s hand fastened on her arm. Her sister had frozen, staring into the darkness.
Then Carina saw it: a single Regian, far down the passageway, facing away from them.
“We’ll never get past it without it seeing us,” she said softly.
“Do we need to?” asked Parthenia.
“Yes. I don’t want to Transport directly into the dome. If my guess is right, we could be dead before we know it.”
“So what do we do?”
“Get rid of it before it sees us.”
Parthenia made an anguished face. She averted her gaze, and her grip on Carina’s arm became painfully tight. “Do it, then.”
Carina made the hated Cast.
When she opened her eyes, in the low light she thought she saw a fissure open in the Regian’s back. Instantly a whistle-like shriek, picked up by the translator around her neck, was transmitted to her comm. The noise pierced Carina’s ear and she grimaced in pain.
Parthenia winced and held a hand to the side of her head.
The fissure in the creature opened wider. It gaped, and powder issued from the gap, creating a dark cloud that dimmed the light further. The creature’s legs buckled and it collapsed, but before it hit the ground, it was gone.
Parthenia had watched the Regian’s last moments out of the corners of her eyes. As it disappeared, she gasped.
“I know,” Carina murmured. “I can’t explain it. Now we have to—”
The doors to the viewing dome flew open, and aliens tumbled out. A river of the black creatures flowed from the doorway.
Carina gaped. She’d guessed they would see some Regians as they tried to carry out her plan, but she hadn’t imagined so many had descended upon the Bathsheba. It was like an infestation.
“You were right!” Parthenia quietly exclaimed.
Carina was already swallowing elixir. It was time to go to their next stop.
***
Mezban’s bomb was exactly where Rosa, the person who had disarmed it, had said she’d left it: in the Duchess’s armory. She’d said she’d thought it might come in useful one day, and so she’d put it on the mercs’ ship for safekeeping. How lucky they were she had.
Understanding how to arm the device and set it to explode without the object in front of her or reference had been tricky, but Carina had thought she understood. Now her memory was to be put to the test.
Parthenia hovered at the armory door in the silent, dark vessel, keeping watch. The Regians had possibly sealed it off from the Bathsheba, thinking they would foil an escape attempt, but that was no impediment to mages.
It was a damned shame they’d alerted the aliens to their presence so early, firstly by setting off the fire alarm and, secondly, by killing the Regian outside the viewing dome. By now, the creatures had probably entered the section where they’d confined the humans and were engaged in battle with the mercs.
Carina had to act fast. She opened the device’s casing and searched for the components Rosa had described. She halted, confused.
“Have you done it?” asked Parthenia.
“No, not yet.” Carina peered into the bomb’s interior. Her mind had gone a blank. She kept thinking of Darius, Nahla, O
riana, and Ferne, helping the Black Dogs battle the Regians, Casting the abhorrent Split. It was the only sure way to kill the aliens, but it was a horrible thing for a mage to do. Jace had balked at even the suggestion until Carina had explained the need.
She didn’t know if the mage would do it, but at least he would be there to protect the kids.
Her thoughts were also consumed with fear for Bryce. He had nothing to defend himself with except a rifle.
The people she loved were in dire danger, and she couldn’t help feeling that, again, it was her fault.
“Carina!” Parthenia barked. “Have you done it?”
She looked at her sister helplessly. “I…”
“Let me arm it,” said Parthenia, striding over.
“No, it’s okay. I can manage.” She stared down into the device.
“Give it to me.”
Carina looked at her sister’s outstretched hands and back at the bomb. “No, it’s fine. I think I remember now.”
“Will you for once in your life let someone else take control?!” Parthenia yelled.
Carina sighed, crushed by the truth of the words. Wordlessly, she lifted the object in her hands and passed it to her sister.
Parthenia frowned as she focused on the wires and relays. Deftly, she reached in and made some adjustments. “It’s armed.” She picked up the detonator. “Back to the viewing dome, right?”
“Yeah,” Carina replied, deflated. “Back to the dome.”
***
She’d suspected the corridor leading to the viewing dome had been sealed off because the Regians were using it for something. For what, she had no idea. But there was nothing else of importance in that part of the ship, no access to the Bathsheba’s controls or anything useful, so the place the aliens wanted the humans cut off from was the dome itself.
That was why she’d wanted to check it out before going there with the bomb.
As it turned out, the decision had worked in their favor. When they reappeared in the corridor outside the dome, the place seemed empty. The door stood open, and the area was silent. The Regians had been drawn away by the disturbance Carina and Parthenia had created.
“Let’s get in there, fast,” said Carina, “before they come back.”
The two sisters raced down the passage toward the room. As they darted inside, however, Parthenia squeaked and drew back. Three of the aliens remained inside. Carina caught a glimpse of lines of swollen, square objects hanging from the struts across the ceiling before she dashed out of the room. They ran back to the steel wall.
Carina’s hand moved to the flask at her hip, but Parthenia stopped her.
Breathless and wide-eyed, she said, “No, I’ll do it.”
The monsters emerged from the room.
Carina cursed and lifted the rifle swinging from her shoulder.
Parthenia’s canister was already open and its mouth at her lips.
The Regians sped toward them, their long bodies rising up on their nimble limbs.
Carina fired, but the aliens had already moved into time-shift mode. Their figures blurred in the dim light. She held down the trigger, spraying a rapid stream of pulses in an arc across the corridor.
Beside her, her sister’s eyes were closed.
Carina hoped to hell she didn’t hesitate. Split was a Cast that was never supposed to be used on living things, and it was how their mother had killed Parthenia’s father after her sister had unknowingly given her the elixir to do it. Could she overcome her mental barrier?
One of the pulses hit its mark, and an oncoming Regian burst into flaming dust. The other two were nearly upon them.
A jet of liquid burst from a hole in the front carapace of one of the creatures.
“Parthenia!” Carina heard the fear in her own voice.
The liquid splashed onto her sister.
Parthenia screamed.
Her shrill wail was joined by shrieks from Carina’s comm.
Just before they reached the sisters, the Regians fell forward onto their crumpling front limbs, spurted black powder, and vanished.
Parthenia was still shrieking, her hands raised, fingers splayed, and her mouth an agonized O.
A line of open, bloody, weeping flesh ran down her cheek and neck and scored a groove in her top and the skin underneath. The alien had sprayed her with acid.
Trembling with shock, Carina reached for her elixir. After swallowing a mouthful, she wrote the Heal Character and sent it out to her sister, but all the while she was fighting flashbacks of doing the same for Darius on Ostillon after Sable Dirksen had shot him.
Parthenia’s screaming stopped.
Carina opened her eyes. Her sister’s skin was whole and healthy, the wound from the acid entirely gone.
“Thanks,” said Parthenia.
But Carina couldn’t speak. She was breathing too fast, and her chest felt like it was about to explode.
She hadn’t known the Regians had that capability. She couldn’t shake the image of her sister’s injury from her mind, and she was imagining what could be happening to the mercs on the other side of the ship.
What if they’d sprayed Bryce? What if they’d gotten through the soldiers who were defending the kids?
Parthenia grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “It’s okay! I’m okay. Come on, we have to set the bomb.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Perhaps because they’d been unable to locate the humans who had infiltrated their section of the Bathsheba, the Regians seemed to have focused their efforts on attacking the ones they could reach. When Carina returned with her sister to the mercs’ side of the vessel, it was thick with aliens, and more were flowing into the area, she saw with dismay.
The black, ridged backs were everywhere, blurring in and out of focus, and she could smell the terrible odor of burned human flesh. The creatures had been spraying the soldiers with acid. Had they been wearing armor, the effect wouldn’t have been devastating, but the Black Dogs were nearly naked.
Carina and Parthenia were near the gym, where Carina had told Atoi to shelter if the Regians showed up.
“What now?” asked Parthenia.
They had seconds before the aliens noticed them.
A hum of words streamed from Carina’s comm: Kill! Destroy! Eat! Execute! Infest! Massacre! Slay! She could also hear the shriek of aliens being Split.
The rustling of many shell-covered bodies moving and scraping against each other filled her other ear along with the hissing rattle of their speech that was audible to human hearing.
Suddenly, an awful cry broke through the cacophony. Someone had been hit with the corrosive liquid.
“Transport us in there,” she said, nodding at the entrance to the gym, which teemed with black carapaces.
While Parthenia prepared to Cast, she plucked the detonator out of her sister’s hands and pressed the switch.
A beat later, a dull, concussive Boom! sounded, and a shockwave passed through the floor.
As one, the milling Regians froze and their rustling stilled to silence.
The next thing Carina knew, she was inside the gym.
Parthenia had Transported them to the side farthest away from the entrance where the Regians were massed. The mercs held most of the gym floor, pressing the black bugs into one corner of the room, but the Black Dogs were in a bad way. Horrific burns had incapacitated many of them, and the line holding back the encroaching aliens looked dangerously thin.
She saw Bryce down, his legs burned, but she had no time to go to him.
Jace and Darius were Healing the injured men and women, Nahla was giving them water, and Oriana and Ferne appeared to have been concentrating on Splitting the Regians. Entire sections of the creatures were regularly dissolving into black dust that vanished, but the quantity of them swarming outside the gym told Carina the mercs and mages were fighting a losing battle. She’d wondered how the aliens had managed to take the Bathsheba in the first place, but now the answer was clear: they’d simply overwhelme
d the Black Dogs’ defense with sheer weight of numbers.
The creatures’ stillness as they reacted to the explosion abruptly broke. Some of those in the gym sped away, but others remained and continued their attack.
“Car!” yelled Atoi, noticing her arrival. “That was the bomb, right?”
“Yeah.”
On the Regian-held side of the Bathsheba, depressurization was taking place. Carina and Parthenia had Cast Open on the door to the viewing dome and on the access hatches to the lower decks. No matter what the aliens did, they would not be able to close the doors for ten or fifteen minutes at least, by which time the damage would be done. Atmosphere was flying out of the ship into space, taking aliens with it as well as anything else not fixed down. It would be mayhem.
Carina’s plan had been to get rid of most of the enemy this way rather than through a direct attack. It had seemed the best tactic for regaining control of the colony ship with minimal human casualties—the metal seals would prevent the depressurization extending to their section. Sending the pulse rifles to the mercs had only been a precaution.
But things hadn’t gone according to plan. She’d anticipated the viewing dome might be filled with aliens, but she’d under-estimated the sheer amount of them, and she hadn’t imagined so many would move to the other side of the ship to attack their prisoners. Now the aliens were also protected by the seals.
The Black Dogs were facing an insurmountable enemy. The Regians’ time-shifting made them hard to kill with pulse fire, and without armor the mercs were helpless before the aliens’ acid attacks, while the mages’ powers weren’t sufficient to tip the balance. Two mages’ efforts had been taken up with Healing the soldiers’ burns, halving their offensive capability. And their supply of elixir was finite.
Even now that she and Parthenia had returned, things looked bad.
While Carina had been brooding, Parthenia had begun to help with the Healing, and Atoi had returned her attention to the firefight.
She called her old friend’s name.
“What?” Atoi yelled in reply. As she spoke, she turned toward Carina, revealing a bright red splash of acid burn down her right-hand side.